I think you're playing with the wrong mindset.
This isnt a complex game where it requires a different mindset, or have one all together.
Like you're mashing Z really hard instead of approaching with a calculating, almost mathematical approach.
The game's apperent 'strategic' aspect is very 'minimal'
And that's not to say it isnt strategic and you can just bumrush, but it isnt that deep of a game as i've said
In moments where things dont look completely hopeless, your instincts take use the game knowledge you've acquired and quickly come up with a plan
I have a stun/item, use it on the strongest enemy
Take care of the generics, there were alot of them, half your hp left
Strong enemy is unfrozen, they move towards you
You have no healing items, only 1 focus
The enemy uses their wide range skill, you have no movement skills to dodge
Use the focus, you got through unscatched
The enemy is infront of you know
Exchange of damage, basic attacks, skills whatever you wish
15 hp left, you survived, and safe
This is about as complex it's going to get, alot of times you dont have the leisure of choosing something like attributes since changing weapons takes a turn, and a turn here is basically the border between life and death
And like i said "where things dont look completely hopeless" alot of the times they do
Sure you can take care of the hopeless situation by getting downed or using Cursed sword yourself, but making a sacrifice in a moment you had no fault it just feels... bad, like really bad and really frustrating
Oh and this completely ignores the element of traps, which you only sometimes have the chance to acticate perception on
Sure, there are damage increases, but half the time the defense or damage buff isnt the one you want, only useful thing is erosion reduction and health when you're in a tight situation
You virtually can't do anything about them, true sight potions are almost as rare as evolution stones
This element of rng isnt fun, there has to be some sort of counterbalance to this
Don't focus on how bullshit strong they are, Focus on becoming bullshit strong yourself, By now you can get some dirty skills.
This is false optimism, being optimistic in this game is thinking you can win an encounter, not that you can become bullshit strong
The game is never and never will be in your favor, and it shouldn't be like that.
A hard game isnt unfair, a hard game requires effort to beat and succeed in, people will call it unfair because they do not spend the effort to actually achieve their goals
There is no 'effort' you can spend in here, you can only waste time as you stepped on an enemy spawner trapped after barely surviving 10 enemies in one room which you spawned in
The enemy i talked about litteraly survived a few of my hits (atleast 100 damage each) and FUCKING TWO CURSED SWORD EXPLOSIONS
FUCKING TWO
What in the ever loving fuck was i supposed to 'stratagize'? I used a focus potion and her 20hp multi hit PER HIT move still hit every single one shredding my hp into nothingness, the enemies are stupid fucking powerful, and the speed at which i am growing stronger does not compare
In this floor, you're gonna meet enemies you can't beat in a fair fight. In the next floor, you're gonna meet enemies you can't beat in an unfair fight. This is intended. You're meant to exploit everything you can and fight dirty.
You're being far to romantic for a game
There is no such thing as honor or playing dirty
You can only attack with your weapon, or with it's skill, you can throw things if that's what you decide to be the best option, and that's it
There is no mechanics to exploit, the time i tried to play dirty was like 20 gameplay hours ago? when i tried to make an enemy sit on a trap, turns out, they dont affect them, so much for playing dirty.
And making it intentional is even worse, i hope the devs just didnt have this much foresight, but maybe they did, thats's why there's only an 'easier' difficulty at the beginning, not a harder one, because that would likely be hell on earth.
(or avoid the fight altogether)
Are we talking about the same game? 8 times out of 10, you fucking cannot run
The map was not designed for you to run, every corridor only leads to another room that has another enemy, running will literally make things works
The only ways of running are if you stun them, assuming you have the skill, but even then they will catch up again, and the problem still remains that the enemies were aggroed and will keep chasing you until either of you are dead
"But you ran to heal yourself" Wrong, 70% of the time i wanted to run was not because i wanted to heal myself, but because i would die, i fucking know what i can and cannot survive.
This is where the only thing you can do is:
Stun them in sections
Run to a corridor, less sides to get raped from
That's all, that's the only thing you can do, it's not running it's strategic repostioning
And that's the best case scenario, otherwise you just die, get erosioned, and now you're safe? nope, you just ruined your chances of even making to the boss, unless you again, pray to the rng gods, maybe even making it out of the area is far fetched
This kind of difficulty is acceptable when there's multiple difficulty selections. A straight up cheating enemies difficulty? We see that in multiple games. Original Doom would spawn in additional enemies randomly. Civ literally hands the higher difficulty AI more resources to overwhelm you with. But a cheating difficulty being standard? Not even Dark Souls has that. Even Dark Souls is fair. This ain't. It's why I fish saves. Ain't no point in putting that much effort into just getting the art. This game is just flat out poorly designed.
Atleast someone gets it, though your comparisons seem unfair to the game itself, since it doesnt cheat
It's just that the mechanics are made to be so against you that you're rarely at advantage
I like this game, i just wish it did better.
